Thermal dissipation at the active region of electronic devices is a fundamental process of considerable importance. Inadequate heat dissipation can lead to prohibitively large temperature rises that degrade performance, and intensive efforts are under way to mitigate this self-heating. At room temperature, thermal resistance is due to scattering, often by defects and interfaces in the active region, that impedes the transport of phonons. Here, we demonstrate that heat dissipation in widely used cryogenic electronic devices instead occurs by phonon black-body radiation with the complete absence of scattering, leading to large self-heating at cryogenic temperatures and setting a key limit on the noise floor. Our result has important implications for the many fields that require ultralow-noise electronic devices.

The potentialities of AlGaN/GaN nanodevices as THz detectors are analyzed. Nanochannels with broken symmetry (so called self switching diodes) have been fabricated for the first time in this material system using both recess-etching and ion implantation technologies. The responsivities of both types of devices have been measured and explained using Monte Carlo simulations and non linear analysis. Sensitivities up to 100 V/W are obtained at 0.3 THz with a 280 pW/Hz^1/2 noise equivalent power.

The static and dynamic behavior of InAlAs/InGaAs double-gate high-electron mobility transistors (DG-HEMTs) is studied by means of an ensemble 2-D Monte Carlo simulator. The model allows us to satisfactorily reproduce the experimental performance of this novel device and to go deeply into its physical behavior. A complete comparison between DG and similar standard HEMTs has been performed, and devices with different gate lengths have been analyzed in order to check the attenuation of short-channel effects expected in the DG-structures. We have confirmed that, for very small gate lengths, short-channel effects are less significant in the DG-HEMTs, leading to a better intrinsic dynamic performance. Moreover, the higher values of the transconductance over drain conductance ratio g_m /g_d, and, especially, the lower gate resistance R_g also provide a significant improvement of the extrinsic f_max.

A microscopic analysis of self-generated terahertz current oscillations that take place in planar InAlAs/InGaAs slot diodes operating under dc bias is presented. An ensemble Monte Carlo simulation is used for the calculations. The onset of the oscillations is thresholdlike, for drain-source voltages surpassing 0.6 V. The Gunn-like mechanisms and the modulation of the injection of electrons into the recess-to-drain region, which alternatively takes place in the $\Gamma$ or $L$ valley, are found at the origin of the phenomenon. Terahertz frequencies are reached because of the presence of ultrafast $\Gamma$ electrons in the region of interest. Extremely high velocities are achieved by (i) the effect of the recess, which focuses the electric field and launches very fast electrons into the drain region, and (ii) the influence of degeneracy, which significantly reduces the rate of scattering mechanisms and enhances the electron mobility in the channel.

A detailed study of GaN-based planar asymmetric nanodiodes, promising devices for the fabrication of room temperature THz Gunn oscillators, is reported. By using Monte Carlo simulations, an analysis of the static I-V curves and the time-domain evolution of the current obtained when varying some simulation parameters in the diodes has been made. Oscillation frequencies of hundreds of GHz are predicted by the simulations in diodes with micrometric channel lengths. Following simulation guidelines, a first batch of diodes was fabricated. It was found that surface charge depletion effects are stronger than expected and inhibit the onset of the oscillations. Indeed, a simple standard constant surface charge model is not able to reproduce experimental measurements and a self-consistent model must be included in the simulations. Using a self-consistent model, it was found that to achieve oscillations, wider channels and improved geometries are necessary.